April 2 -Birthday Behemoth Beatles Beam-Up

In the lab recording Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 1 C with vocals (Curley's Wife an octave up) and a cow crescendo of barn sounds (raw material also used in recording of Act IV opener), which Doug, Sebastian, and David seem to enjoy.




Then off to William Loney's in Oakland for a Steven Clark Amok Time rehearsal -- show will be up again at Boxcar Theatre on April 14, info and production / rehearsal shots soon at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.

Captain Kirk -- William Loney
Mr. Spock -- Karl Coryat
Dr. McCoy -- Mark Alburger
Lt. Uhura / Stonn -- Suzanna Mizell
Mr. Chekhov / T'Pring -- Cynthia Weyuker
T'Pau -- Susan Clark
Composer / Director -- Steven Clark

Ah, yes, the birthday -- home with Harriet late for cake and ice cream -- we'll celebrate a bit more tomorrow with a Napa adventure.

Meanwhile... good to hear from Bette, George, and Sorrel... decidedly lower key festivities than last year's big 50th...


Before all this, Theory dictation/harmony of Paul McCartney's Yesterday (7-bar main theme)

F:

Re Do Do
Mi Fi Si La Ti Do
Ti La La
La La Sol Fa Mi Re
Fa Mi Mi
Re Do Mi Re La
Do Mi Mi

I vii III7 (V7 of vi) vi IV V I V6 vi II (V of V) IV I

with the nicely ambiguous interplay with D Relative Minor --
reminiscent of the Renaissance Quando Ritrovna of Constanzo Festa...

March 11 - 20th/21st Schizoid

A bit of Claude Debussy and more Kurt Weill in Music Theory; home again,


then back on the 680 corridor,


the Sulfur Springs Mountains in light and shadow,


with a faint image of Long Barn


against darkening heights (yes, these are actually two different pictures),


and a distant silhouette of the breasts of Diablo,


for the evening class of music from Ralph Vaughan Williams


through Anton Webern.


Home late, preparing for publication fifth and final page of Act V, Scene 1 "I Done Another Bad Thing" from Mice and Men.

March 4 - An Afternoon and an Evening - The c. 18,586th Day

Morning fun and games and afternoon of Giuseppe Verdi,


first the Quartet and Storm from Rigoletto, in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's film


then the Triumphant Entry from Aida for dictation:

Sol Do Re Sol Re Mi Mi Mi Mi Fa Do Mi Re Do Re Mi Mi Re Do Re Mi Mi Re Mi Mi Do Re Re

with a lot of I and V chords, often in first and second inversions, and some V7's, ultimately leading to vi (v of ii or II) and II (V of V).


Evening class from Antonin Dvorak to Scott Joplin (at least the don't all have beards, referring back to yesterday's blog) and


look how hard we're working on the left side of classroom -- Kai, Kevin, Cecilia, Seung, Min, Suong, Christopher, Ahn, Larry, Jacki, Kyle, John (visiting from morning class), Brian, Zhen, Mojib --


and also on the right -- continuing with Alicia, Chris, Vania, Lamar (shielded from the paparazzo), Anthony, Sepidah, and Kim.


Thereafter, continuing on the Left, Bank that is, and it's obviously gray shirt night, with Doug, Peter, Owen,


and Steve (and cheers, no beards).

Prepare for publication the third page of "I Done Another Bad Thing" from Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 1.

February 27 - Dawn of People

Frederic Chopin Prelude in E Minor for dictation --





first eight measures melodically, first four harmonically, in anticipation for next week's topics.


Then to Walnut creek to pick up another usb cable for the iPod.

In the past week, dryer died, Harriet's car battery expired, one of two VCR players in a double-deck set-up in the bedroom gave up the ghost, thermostat on heater went out, plumbing fixtures tanked, visuals turned spotty in the Mozart post over at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com, audio from Cyberduck to same grew mute in error messages, Macbook misbehaved, photos failed to import, and iPod cord was lost.

As of tonight, Monty-Python style: "got better" -- all is as it was, a City on the Edge of Tomorrow, and household is up and running again, such as it ever is, albeit not without significant monetary outlay in some cases (dryer needed hefty-sum [for us, anyway] replacement; heater only couple of $2.00 AA batteries....)


On the way home, along the 680 corridor, with reflective office buildings at Treat Boulevard,


the semi-rugged Stone Wind Quarry Hill,


quixotic Garage House and The Suburbs (with grass greener under the fog drip of spring-barren trees),


wildflowers in the Parish Hills


and South Lagoon Mountains, and


the north slope of the Central Lagoon Mountains.


It's Harriet's birthday (there she is above, in composer-bassist John Beeman's witty Dear Composer, part of a Fresh Voices show), so we're off to local Mexican joint, followed by flowers and cake and ice cream


and the old Robert Graves


BBC miniseries (6 of 13 episodes) of I, Claudius,


with music of Wilfred Josephs.


Prepare for publication the second page of the "I done another bad thing section of Act V, Scene I Mice and Men, too, and we'll speak no more about it. And speak no more. At least for tonight.

February 26 - The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

A drive-by picture on the freeway, but, judging from the folliage, Spring has come to Lagoon Valley Park and environs.


It's a month's aniversary since starting the blogspot blogs (now including markalburgerworks.blogspot.com, markalburgerevents.blogspot.com, markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com, and 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com), and a month and a day since blogging in general, over at myspace.com/markalburger, so what better way to celebrate than another day of teaching: here are Nick M and Rob, back from sabbatical (as a prelude, we're watching a brief excerpt from Amadeus -- the music dictation bit -- is it funny or serious?)...


and let's not forget Bernie (taken before class, so he can't be faulted for not having his eye on a movie).


Evening class is mid-Romantic, from Frederic Chopin


to Pyotr Tchaikovsky.


Home late, with just enough time to prepare for publication rehearsal 53 of Act V, Scene 1 Mice and Men ("I done another bad thing"). Don't we all.

February 1 - Symphony of A Thousand Tasks

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1: III ("The Huntsman's Funeral") (Frere Jacques in D Minor) for dictation today.

Do Re Me Re Do (repeated) Me Fa Sol (repeated)

Sol Le Sol Fa Me Re Do (repeated) Sol Sol Do (repeated),

Lunch with Harriet at local Italian joint, with gray views of the Vaca Mountains -- one only imagines that above they would look more like below (but probably not, since this photo is no doubt a summer fog shot),



then really beginning to write the Music History text at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com, with medieval chapters on Jehan, Philippe de Vitry, Guillaume de Machaut, Jacopo da Bologna, and Francesco Landini; plus putting up info and pics re Op. 15 Three Places in America through Op. 24 Orpheus Cycle at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com.

Another page (7) of score preparation for Mice and Men, Act V 1C "Jus' Feel That Hair", too.

January 30 - Glorious Day

Page 6 of Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 1 A "Jus' feel that hair" prepared for publication.

Theory dictation is Rex Coeli (Glorious King) from the Scholia Enchiriadis (c. 850), but certainly not in the original notation,

rather,

as quickie, first-part-only bass line, then we all provide upper harmony as directed on the boards and sing same, with the old oblique-motion gag. Finally, intriguing piece from Curtis Cochran featuring IM7 iim7 iiim7 and IVM7 in Bb.

Doug and Mark Steidel like the looks of the blogspot sites, and consider starting a composer site and a travel site respectively. Trying to find a picture of Mark, find one of Owen Lee instead, looking like he's ready to start a latter blog himself!

Home along not nearly such an adventuresome path, via local Mexican joint with Harriet, the Vaca Mountains shining away in the distance (although not as golden as in this summer shot).

The evening slip-sliding away, cruising to great heights and putting up the January 2008 issue at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com, a few medieval composers at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com, and images from The Lord's Prayer, Variations and Theme, Interrupted Interludes, The Twelve Fingers, Henry Miller in Brooklyn, The Playboy of the Western World, and The Pied Piper of Hamelin at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com.

Also put up sound file of Op. 107 Out on the Porch: II. I'm Already in Trouble at myspace.com/markalburger.

January 28 - Off We Go Again

A big sun in Lynch Canyon, just in case any northern Californians have forgotten what it looks like (the sun, that is; the canyon is easy to miss on the right as one blips along I-80 in the Sulfur Springs Mountains, heading toward San Francisco).

Up very early, preparing page 4 of Mice and Men: Act V, C "Jus' feel that hair" for publication.

Then it's off to Diablo Valley College, racing past the Suflur Springs again, now on I-680, clouds hovering over the hills (higher than the draped fog below),

vaulting over the Benicia Bridge (n.b. new span not shown),


to DVC, with its parking-lot view of Mount Diablo.


All's well in Theory (the Music Building is the circular structure just below the pond -- a nice place to teach!),


with a dictation on the Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1582 or 1592 until 1635) Three Blind Mice (1609), not exactly as below, and certainly without all those extraneous flags, last eighth, and protracted last measure...


Keyboard-solfege for the week is the Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)


Ode to Joy (the simplified C-major version, melody only) from the Symphony No. 9 ("Choral") (1824).


Scales/modes are D Dorian (treble clef),


D Minor,
and


(played on keyboard while singing solfege).

Bit of conducting in simple and compond meters, and we harmonize Three Blind as if early organum,

at the P4.

Retrograde, past the Sulfur Springs Mountains again,

the distant Twin Sisters beckoning,


I start three more blogs at

21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com

markalburgerworks.blogspot.com

and

markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com